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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2020
In the first half of the ode (1–8) Horace prays to Faunus and guarantees him an annual sacrifice. Nisbet and Rudd describe the prayer as a ‘summons’ and identify it as ‘kletic’, but this cannot be right, since in the same breath the god is asked to depart no less than to come (3–4: lenis incedas abeasque… | aequus). The fact is that lenis incedas does not mean ‘may you progress and be gentle about it’ but ‘may your progress be gentle’, just as abeasque…aequus means ‘and may your departure be favourable’. Horace is neither summoning the god nor sending him off: Faunus’ visit is taken for granted, which is hardly surprising since we were told in 1.17.1–2 that he visits Horace's estate ‘often’ (saepe). It is the manner of his visit for which the annual sacrifice constitutes the quid pro quo.
I am most grateful to I. M. Le M. Du Quesnay for reading and commenting on an earlier draft of this article, and to D. S. Levene for advice on individual points; their agreement should not be assumed.
1 The transmitted text is accepted by the majority of modern editors, commentators, and translators, e.g. de Gubernatis, M. Lenchantin and Bo, D., Q. Horati Flacci Opera, vol. 1 (second edition, Turin, 1957–8)Google Scholar; Klingner, F., Horatius. Opera (third edition, Leipzig, 1959)Google Scholar; Kiessling, A. and Heinze, R., Q. Horatius Flaccus. Oden und Epoden (eleventh edition, Zurich and Berlin, 1964)Google Scholar; Williams, G., The Third Book of Horace's Odes (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar; Goold, G. P., Q. Horati Flacci Carminum Libri IV (Groton, MA, 1977)Google Scholar; Quinn, K., Horace. The Odes (London, 1980)Google Scholar; Borzsák, S., Horatius. Opera (Leipzig, 1984)Google Scholar; West, D., Horace Odes III. Dulce Periculum (Oxford, 2002)Google Scholar; Nisbet, R. G. M. and Rudd, N., A Commentary on Horace. Odes Book III (Oxford, 2004)Google Scholar; Rudd, N., Horace. Odes and Epodes, Loeb Classical Library 33 (Cambridge, MA, 2004)Google Scholar. L. Müller's rendering of line 14 is adopted by Campbell, A. Y., Horace. Odes and Epodes (Liverpool, 1953)Google Scholar and Bailey, D. R. Shackleton, Horatius. Opera (Stuttgart 1985)Google Scholar.
2 Translation from Williams (n. 1), slightly adjusted.
3 Both Porphyrio and pseudo-Acro on line 10 refer to Faunalia on 5 December, but their information presumably derives from Horace's ode and has no independent value.
4 Scullard, H. H., Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic (London, 1981), 201Google Scholar. According to pseudo-Probus on Verg. G. 1.10, Faunus had monthly feast days: scholars assume that the day described by Horace was one such and was of interest only to him (it was three days before his birthday) and his country neighbours (Scullard [this note], 72, 201). H. P. Syndikus, on the other hand, is keen to see the ode in terms of Greek literary motifs and the like (Die Lyrik des Horaz [third edition, Darmstadt, 2001], ii.163–7).
5 Fraenkel, E., Horace (Oxford, 1957), 205Google Scholar, n. 2.
6 Nisbet and Rudd also talk of the god receiving ‘his annual reward’ and being ‘honoured for his protection of flocks throughout the past year’, which seems incompatible with the notions of a summons and sacrificial bargain.
7 For more on the life-cycle of goats, see F. Cairns, Roman Lyric (Berlin and Boston, 2012), 399–400.
8 See R. Maltby, A Lexicon of Ancient Latin Etymologies (Leeds, 1991), 44, for both words.
9 Nisbet and Rudd (n. 1), 219–20.
10 P. H. Peerlkamp, Q. Horatii Flacci Carmina (Harlem, 1834).
11 A similar distinction is proposed by A. J. Macleane, Quinti Horatii Flacci Opera Omnia (fourth edition, London, 1881) but his interpretation, which involves some re-punctuation but no transposition, does not address the main problem.
12 West (n. 1), 162.
13 A. Cucchiarelli, ‘Nonae Decembres: un'interpolazione in Hor. carm. 3, 18, 9–16’, MD 68 (2012), 203–21. For the hypothetical eight-line poem which results he compared Anth. Pal. 6.300, which ends with the promise of a sacrificed kid.
14 See L. A. Moritz, ‘Some “Central” Thoughts on Horace's Odes’, CQ 18 (1968), 118. The numbers correspond only if 3.12 is printed as four four-line stanzas, as in the editions of Goold or Quinn.
15 This is the title of an article on Horace by J. Marouzeau, Mnemosyne 4 (1936), 85–94.
16 Kiessling and Heinze (n. 1), ad loc.
17 For the short initial syllable, see 4.11.16: findit Aprilem.
18 A. Otto, Die Sprichwörter und sprichwörtlichen Redensarten der Römer (Leipzig, 1890), 366.
19 Maltby (n. 8), 44.
20 This point would be considerably strengthened if Veneris sodali referred to Faunus himself, as some editors believe. The Nones of April was the festival of Fortuna Publica (see Scullard [n. 4], 100), but it is universally recognized that in the ode we are dealing with a localized rural festival.
21 See P. Defourny, ‘Le printemps dans l'ode à Sestius’, LEC 14 (1946), 174–94.
22 Nisbet and Rudd (n. 1), 225.
23 See further Nisbet and Rudd (n. 1), ad loc. Williams (n. 1) attractively took agrestis with silua (cf. Ov. Met. 7.242; Curt. 8.10.14).
24 The words (‘spring beginning in the middle of winter’) are taken from Norden, E., Die Geburt des Kindes (second edition, Leipzig and Berlin, 1931), 149Google Scholar, and used by Holleman, A. W. J. as the subtitle to his article ‘Horace, Odes 3.18’, Latomus 31 (1972), 492–6Google Scholar.